11/16/2011

Facebook, Google oppose US online piracy bills

Internet heavyweights Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo! have joined ranks to oppose legislation in the US Congress intended to crack down on online piracy.

In a joint letter, the firms yesterday said they “support the bills’ stated goals — providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign ‘rogue’ Web sites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting.”

“Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding US Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of websites,” they said in the letter to the House and Senate judiciary committees.

“We are concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our nation’s cyber-security,” the Internet giants said.

The separate bills introduced in the House and the Senate would give the US authorities more tools to crack down on “rogue” Web sites accused of piracy of movies, television shows and music and the sale of counterfeit goods.

The Stop Online Piracy Act has received some bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and is the House version of a bill introduced in the Senate in May known as the Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or Protect IP Act.

The legislation has received the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, the Business Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce and other groups.

In addition to Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo!, the other companies signing the letter were AOL, eBay, LinkedIn, Mozilla and Zynga.